Brushes with Greatness (or idiots)

[RadioOKC]

After making a post on a previous thread, I decided to put one up.

So, share it with us.

Did you have a celeb experience that was off the chain incredible, or have
you seen the bad side of a visiting or local celeb?

Not looking at this as a bashing thing, but I am interested if these people
with attitude are the ones we dont hear much from anymore.


Chris
www.radiookc.com

[BBatesokc]

I was fortunate to meet several 'celebrities' while I was working in the marketing and PR department at Children's Hospital during the OKC bombing.

The worst acting celebs were Oprah and Jesse Jackson. The best by far was Kirstie Alley and the Dutchess or York Sarah Ferguson.

Kirstie had such class. She waited until quite awhile after the bombing and called us directly. She said she wondered if the non-bombing kids in the hospital felt left out or forgotten. She then went to Toys R Us and bought a van full of toys and spent two days handing them all out. She didn't have 'celebrity demands' like the others. She only asked that we not tell the media until she had left (if at all) and that she would be in casual clothes and no or little makeup. She said, "the kids won't know who I am and I want this to be all about them." All she asked for was a couple of volunteers to help her hand out toys to each kid in each room. She was very relaxed and genuinely seemed to want to be there. She even ate with me and a co-worker in the cafeteria with everyone else. I've been a big fan of hers ever since.

[Dustin]

Former President Bush waved at me one time in D.C... lol.

[mugofbeer]

My wife and I watched John Elway absolutely make an *** of himself toward a woman wanting his autograph at his own Elway's restaurant in Denver. He sternly asked her to let him enjoy his dinner with his family. When she came back when they were up and leaving, he completely chewed her out publicly. Justifiably, he was irritated with her for interrupting his dinner with his family. But, one: he was eating at a table in the middle of the bar area at his own restaurant and two: when he pubicly chewed her out, she did what he told her to do. Come back after they had finished. Everyone can have their bad days, I guess.

[Achilleslastand]

My wife and I watched John Elway absolutely make an *** of himself toward a woman wanting his autograph at his own Elway's restaurant in Denver. He sternly asked her to let him enjoy his dinner with his family. When she came back when they were up and leaving, he completely chewed her out publicly. Justifiably, he was irritated with her for interrupting his dinner with his family. But, one: he was eating at a table in the middle of the bar area at his own restaurant and two: when he pubicly chewed her out, she did what he told her to do. Come back after they had finished. Everyone can have their bad days, I guess.

She should be grateful he didnt bite her with those big chompers....Seriously tho ive heard a few stories about Elway and im not suprised.

[cameron_405]

...Sir Elton was friendly with fans at the Oklahoma City Arena -- shook my hand, too.


Flickr.com - Cameron_405 - Elton John Greets Fans [video]

[BBatesokc]

I was actually very surprised when I met Mike Tyson many years ago how friendly he was. I asked him to sign an autograph and he had me sit down and we talked for a few minutes and then he gave me an autograph. Hard to understand, but seemed very genuine. Be prepared though, when you tell him you're a big fan, he will quiz you to see if you're lying. Luckily I was up on my Tyson trivia that day.

[rcjunkie]

Several years ago President Bush was in Oklahoma and needed/wanted a place to jog, at the time I was the Grounds Supervisor for the OKC 89ers. Before he arrived, the Secret Service showed up and searched the entire stadium, when Bush arrived, there were several armed SS Agents surrounding and on top of the stadium. I got to meet and shake hands with Bush, he was very cordial, the SS Agents, now that's another story.

[skyrick]

In 1973 I was delivering flowers for Batten Floral. The movie "Dillinger" (some of which was filmed in pre-urban renewal OKC) premiered in OKC, and someone ordered a bouquet of roses for Michelle Phillips. I got to deliver them to the Skirvin and instead of leaving them at the desk, I asked the clerk what her room number was. He told me, I took them upstairs, rang the doorbell on the suite and some guy answered. "I've got some flowers for Michelle Phillips" I said. They guy turned into the room and said, "Michelle, it's for you," She came to the door, smiling, (she smelled great!) and said, "Hi, I'm Michelle. What can I do for you?" I handed her the flowers, got her signature, then she stuck out her hand to shake and said, "Thank you very much!"

[Bigrayok]

I saw James Brown at the Will Rogers airport in the 1970's. He was with a woman in the hall way. A young child walked up to him and asked if he was James Brown. James smiled real big and said yes. I could tell he got a kick out of the child talking to him. He was very friendly.

Bigray in Ok

[TaoMaas]

I saw James Brown at the Will Rogers airport in the 1970's. He was with a woman in the hall way. A young child walked up to him and asked if he was James Brown. James smiled real big and said yes. I could tell he got a kick out of the child talking to him. He was very friendly.

Bigray in Ok

I was working at one of our local tv stations when a big limo pulled up out front one day. One of my co-workers went to the window to see who it was. He yelled, "It's James Brown!" Another co-worker said, "The CBS sports guy?" The first guy said, "No, the godfather of soul!" It wasn't uncommon to have celebrities in-house, but I've never seen one cause as much excitement as James Brown. My best celebrity encounter was with Roy Clark. We were his last interview of the day, so he asked if we wanted to stick around and have a few beers with him and Rodney Lay. He ordered a bucket of beer from room service and we spent about 2 hours sitting around and swapping stories. He and Rodney couldn't have been nicer guys.

[mark]

met some of the guys from night ranger around '85 when they were big. nice guys from what i remember.

met randy newman after a show in miami in 2006. my daughter, who was eight at the time, was with my wife and i. randy said hi, apologized for the language in some of his songs ("didn't know there were kids in the audience") and asked her what her favorite pixar film was (his was a bug's life). he then signed a promo picture i brought, but signed it for my daughter. he wrote "dear xxx, you've got a friend in me whether you want one or not. love, randy newman". an awesome experience.

[RadioOKC]

Some really cool stories here so far.

I spent quite a long time in radio and met some really cool and not so cool
country artists out there.

One thing that you fear in radio is the backstage pass giveaway. The
winners have huge expectations and I always made it a point to call
them before the show and kinda let them know what to expect.

One of the real stinkers I can remember was with Lorrie Morgan. I had
a group of contest winners that we're backstage waiting for over
2 Hours for a meet and greet, and she never showed. When I finally
caught up with her manager, all he could say is "she was busy".
Meanwhile my listeners missed Carlene Carter and Pam Tillis on stage
.....waiting.

Most of the artists in Country are pretty cool. I was invited to a
rehersal of Tim Mcgraw's Spontaneous combustion tour and was
issued a laminated pass to get in. After a dress rehersal of the
show we got to meet and He asked what I thought about the
new stage exc. He went on to tell me the thing he was most
happy about were "these new backstage passes". While he said
that he was poking the pass in to me and said "that right there
is 24 carat gold on that pass!" When I shot him a whatever look
he responded "alright, alright, may name ain't George Strait.....".

Since the thread is music related if there are any 80's/Rick Springfield/
Duran Duran fans, i added some pretty cool video to my website from
their Oklahoma performances. The Springfield clip is exceptionally
good. Hard to believe Rick recently turned 61????


Chris
www.radiookc.com

[MadMonk]

Ran into Vince Gill and Amy Grant at the arrivals curb at Will Rogers airport years ago when my daughter was only a couple month's old. He was picking up Amy and loading her luggage when my wife went over to talk to them and get a picture (much to my embarrassment). Even though they were probably just as tired and as ready to be home as we were, they were extremely nice and Vince even asked to hold my daughter and take a few extra shots.

[kevinpate]

Jerry Clower in 70's

Crystal Gayle in 80's

Mike Farrell in 90's

Class acts all.

no one leaps to mind for the 00's. Enjoyed some folks, but not with them directly.

[rondvu]

I have to say that Bob Stoops is a fine man. He and I were both parked near the front door and Max Westhimer in Norman. He saw I was about to back out to go around his car. He put down his golf clubs and ran to to move his car. The whole time apologizing profusely for inconveniencing me. No audience, just us. In my book Bob Stoops is a man with character.

[RadioOKC]

I have to say that Bob Stoops is a fine man. He and I were both parked near the front door and Max Westhimer in Norman. He saw I was about to back out to go around his car. He put down his golf clubs and ran to to move his car. The whole time apologizing profusely for inconveniencing me. No audience, just us. In my book Bob Stoops is a man with character.

I have always heard nice things about him. I have never met him but everyone I know who has come in contact with
him says he's a great guy.

Someone eariler was commenting on Elton John. One of my friends friends wrote Elton a letter about 10 years ago. Said something to the effect of music helping when you have lost someone in the letter and something about a life experience that went wrong. About 3 months later after sending it, he recieved a hand written letter, 2 pages in length and a couple of
autographed items. I have a huge amount of respect for Sir Elton.


Chris
www.radiookc.com

[cameron_405]

"...someone eariler was commenting on Elton John. One of my friends friends wrote Elton a letter about 10 years ago. Said something to the effect of music helping when you have lost someone in the letter and something about a life experience that went wrong. About 3 months later after sending it, he recieved a hand written letter, 2 pages in length and a couple of autographed items. I have a huge amount of respect for Sir Elton..."

...here's a photo set from the Billy Joel & Elton John concert at Oklahoma City Arena taken with my 'point & shoot'.

Flickriver.com - Cameron_405 - Billy Joel and Elton John - Face 2 Face - 25 February 2010

[cjohnson.405]

When I lived in Dallas, I ran across Dallas Cowboys pretty frequently. A couple of examples:

A couple of years ago, I met Tony Dorsett at Randy White's BBQ in Frisco, TX. I grew up in Dallas and he was one of my heroes as a kid. I was standing in line and turned around and he was standing behind me. I'm a 40 year old man....and I might have squealed like a little school girl. He was very nice and talked with me while we waited in line.

On another visit to Randy White's (really good BBQ by the way) we met Randy White. He talked with my daughters while we ate. I believe I addressed him as Mr. Manster Sir (yes, another hero of mine). Near the end of our dinner, he stopped again and brought ice cream for the girls. Very nice guy.

I also met Kevin Bacon at restaurant in Seattle in the late 80's. As he walked by my table, I start singing "gotta get loose, footloose" It stopped him in his tracks and he was kind enough to visit for a little bit.

[AAC2005]

When I lived in Dallas, I ran across Dallas Cowboys pretty frequently.

Normally, this is where I would (or should) say take out the word "across" and substitute it with "over", but you mentioned two Cowboys with whom I can find no fault...darn.

[barrettd]

met some of the guys from night ranger around '85 when they were big. nice guys from what i remember.

met randy newman after a show in miami in 2006. my daughter, who was eight at the time, was with my wife and i. randy said hi, apologized for the language in some of his songs ("didn't know there were kids in the audience") and asked her what her favorite pixar film was (his was a bug's life). he then signed a promo picture i brought, but signed it for my daughter. he wrote "dear xxx, you've got a friend in me whether you want one or not. love, randy newman". an awesome experience.

I had the pleasure of meeting Randy a few times when I lived in Los Angeles. He remembered me from visit to visit, and has been kind enough to sign a few things for me. I was also part of a small group of fans invited to the scoring sessions for Meet the Parents and Monsters, Inc.

He's truly one of the better guys out there. One night, he borrowed a cell phone of a friend of mine to call another friend who had to cancel at the last minute going to the concert. Randy gave him a hard time ("where were you tonight?" "did you get a better offer?", etc.)

I'm hoping he plays somewhere close sometime soon.

[mark]

barrettd, you must be an LC, because i remember reading that story.

[so1rfan]

I've met a ton of sports celebrities, Peyton Manning was one of the biggest, that was at the Orlando airport. I met Kevin Durant once. Pretty much every NASCAR driver from Richard Petty to Jeff Gordon and Dale Jr. Picked up Kasey Khane once in a Dodge Charger to take him to an autograph signing session, made him put on his seatbelt. Nice kid. Met The Big Show Paul Wight once at the Dallas airport, biggest human being I have ever seen. I met Willie Nelson, Reba, Vince Gill. I saw Paul James the Gardening Guy at the Whole Foods in Tulsa once.

[MrZ]

Sat next to John Forsythe in 1987 on a flight out of OKC. Gave Johnny Paycheck a ride in the late 80's for a few hundred yards when he was playing a benefit concert in Little Axe to build the original football stands that were destroyed in the tornado last year. Got kicked in the face by a drunk Dennis Rodman at a "gentlemen's club" in New Orleans when he got up and was doing the Can-can with some "entertainers". Was in Vancouver for a convention in 2001 and Gary Busey was staying at our hotel while shooting a movie and ended up going out with a group of us to a bar. Dude didn't drink but every time we turned around he had a can of Pringles in his hand and was chowing down on them. He would finish a can, we would look away, and he would have a new can he was eating out. Funny guy but a little crazy. Went to the Rainbow Bar & Grille in Hollywood once and Sebastian Bach was eating spaghetti in the booth next to us and when he left I stole his straw for a girl that was with us. Lemmy from Motorhead was there holding court. I worked a Metallica concert at the Myriad in '96 and got to do security for the meet and greet after the show and got to meet the guys in the band.

[Stan Silliman]

Guess who I saw this morning?
Me! In a mirror. I was flabbergasted... but kept my cool, didn't immediately rush in for an autograph.
Finally, I worked up the nerve... and approached myself.
I was totally fine with making the acquaintance... a new friend who seemed like I knew all my life.

Just had to share. What with Oprah gone, y'know..